Collonges-la-Rouge France
Frequently Asked Questions
By coach. Collonges-la-Rouge cannot be reached by water: cruises in the region, on the Dordogne or out of Bordeaux, drive passengers through the hills of the upper valley. The ride itself, past walnut orchards and tobacco drying barns, is part of the pleasure.
Because of the local sandstone, saturated with iron oxide by the Meyssac fault that divides the Limousin from the Quercy here. Houses, towers and church: the whole village is ember-coloured, set among green walnut trees. Nothing else in France looks like it.
Half a day covers the village, which is fully pedestrian in season. This is a hamlet, not a city: you wander rather than tick off sights. Photographers happily stay longer.
This is where the association of Plus Beaux Villages de France was founded in 1982. The Corrèze village was the starting point of the whole movement, and it still stands comparison with every village that followed.
The castels first — Vassinhac with its watch turrets, Benge ringed by vines, Maussac with its carved porch. Then the church of Saint-Pierre, the Black Penitents' chapel, the Maison de la Sirène under its stone-slab roof, and the grain hall with its old communal oven.
Its 12th-century Romanesque tympanum, carved in pale limestone that stands out against the dark facade: an Ascension with elongated figures. It survived the Wars of Religion because the villagers simply walled it up.
Walnut in every form — oil, cake, aperitif wine — and the violet mustard of Brive, made with grape must since the Middle Ages. Terraces under the lime trees serve solid country cooking, farcidures and confits.
Yes, shops and workshops fill the vaulted cellars around the market hall: potters, glassblowers, leatherworkers and sellers of Corrèze produce. It is the right place for a souvenir that was not made somewhere else.
Reasonably. Hunting for the small carved mermaid under the porch of the house named after her works as a treasure hunt, and the pedestrian lanes let you loosen your grip. Uneven cobbles do make strollers awkward.
The euro, cards accepted in most shops, though keep cash for small craftspeople. French is spoken; English is limited in this rural Corrèze village.
